Renunciation And Disclaimer of Joint Tenant or Tenancy Interest
Disclaimer of Property Interest-Oklahoma
Oklahoma Statutes
Title 60.
Property.
Chapter 15.
Terms Defined.
As used in this act, unless otherwise clearly required by the context:
1. "Beneficiary" means and includes any person entitled,
but for his disclaimer, to take an interest, as grantee; as donee; under
any assignment or instrument of conveyance or transfer; by succession to
a disclaimed interest, other than by will, intestate succession or through
the exercise or nonexercise of a testamentary power of appointment; as
beneficiary of an inter vivos trust or insurance contract; pursuant to
the exercise or nonexercise of a nontestamentary power of appointment;
as donee of a power of appointment created by a nontestamentary instrument;
or otherwise under any nontestamentary instrument;
2. "Interest" means and includes the whole of any property, real
or personal, legal or equitable, or any fractional part, share or particular
portion or specific assets thereof or any estate in any such property including
but not limited to a joint tenancy interest in any such property, or power
to appoint, consume, apply or expend property or any other right, power,
privilege or immunity relating thereto; and
3. "Disclaimer" means a written instrument which declines, refuses,
releases or disclaims an interest which would otherwise be succeeded to
by a beneficiary, which instrument defines the nature and extent of the
interest disclaimed thereby and which must be signed, witnessed and acknowledged
by the disclaimant in the manner provided for deeds of real estate.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §751.
Right to File Disclaimer - Minor Incompetent or Deceased Beneficiaries.
A beneficiary may disclaim any interest in whole
or in part, or with reference to specific parts, shares, portions or assets
thereof, by filing a disclaimer in the manner hereinafter provided. A guardian,
executor, administrator or other personal representative of the estate
of a minor, incompetent or deceased beneficiary, if he deems it in the
best interests of those interested in the estate of such beneficiary and
of those who take the beneficiary's interest by virtue of the disclaimer
and not detrimental to the best interests of the beneficiary, with or without
an order of the probate court, may execute and file a disclaimer on behalf
of the beneficiary within the time and in the manner in which the beneficiary
himself could disclaim if he were living, of legal age and competent. A
beneficiary likewise may execute and file a disclaimer by agent or attorney
so empowered.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §752.
Disclaimer - Time for Filing.
Such disclaimer shall be filed at any time after
the creation of the interest, but in all events within nine (9) months
after the effective date of the nontestamentary instrument creating the
interest, or, if the disclaimant is not then finally ascertained as a beneficiary
or his interest has not then become indefeasibly fixed both in quality
and in quantity, such disclaimer shall be filed not later than nine (9)
months after the event which would cause him so to become finally ascertained
and his interest to become indefeasibly fixed both in quality and quantity.
With respect to a disclaimer, an interest which is a joint tenancy interest
in property shall not be considered to be indefeasibly fixed both in quality
and quantity until the death of all but one of the persons owning such
joint tenancy interest.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §753.
Place of Filing Disclaimer - Delivery of Copies - Interest in
Real Estate.
Such disclaimer shall be effective upon being
filed in any court of the State of Oklahoma having jurisdiction and venue
of the matter. A copy of the disclaimer shall be delivered or mailed to
the trustee of any trust in which the interest disclaimed exists or to
such other person as has legal title to, or possession of, the property
in which the interest disclaimed exists, and no such trustee or person
shall be liable for any otherwise proper distribution or other disposition
made without actual notice of the disclaimer. If an interest in or relating
to real estate is disclaimed, the original of the disclaimer, or a copy
of the disclaimer certified as true and complete by the custodian wherein
the same has been filed, shall also be filed with the county clerk in the
county or counties where the real estate is situated and shall constitute
notice to all persons only from and after the time of such filing.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §754.
Disclaimer of Interest.
Unless otherwise provided in the nontestamentary
instrument creating the interest with reference to the possibility of a
disclaimer by the beneficiary, the interest disclaimed shall be distributed
or otherwise be disposed of in the same manner as if the disclaimant had
died immediately preceding the death or other event which causes him to
become finally ascertained as a beneficiary and his interest to become
indefeasibly fixed both in quality and quantity and, in any case, the disclaimer
shall relate for all purposes to that date, whether filed before or after
such death or other event. However, one disclaiming an interest in a nonresiduary
gift under a trust instrument or otherwise shall not be excluded, unless
his disclaimer so provides, from sharing in a gift of the residue even
though, through lapse, such residue includes the assets disclaimed. If
the disclaimer pertains to a joint tenancy interest in property, the interest
disclaimed shall be distributed or otherwise be disposed of in the same
manner as if the disclaimant had died immediately preceding the death of
the other person having a joint tenancy interest in the same property whose
death most closely preceded the effective date of the disclaimer or, if
no person having a joint tenancy interest has died, then as if the disclaimant
never owned the joint tenancy interest which was disclaimed.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §755.
Uniform Fraudulent Conveyances Act not Abrogated - Bar on Right
to Disclaim in Certain Cases.
Nothing included in this act shall be deemed
to amend, repeal or abrogate in any manner Title 24 O. S. 1971, Sections
101 through 111, inclusive. Any voluntary assignment or transfer of, or
contract to assign or transfer, an interest in real or personal property,
or written waiver of the right to disclaim the succession to an interest
in real or personal property, by any beneficiary, or any sale or other
disposition of an interest in real or personal property pursuant to judicial
process, made before he has disclaimed, as herein provided, bars the right
otherwise hereby conferred on such beneficiary to disclaim as to such interest.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §756.
Spendthrift Provisions - Binding Effect of Disclaimer - Spouse
of Disclaimant.
The right to disclaim granted by this act shall
exist irrespective of any limitation imposed on the interest of the disclaimant
in the nature of an express or implied spendthrift provision or similar
restriction. A disclaimer, when filed as provided in this act, or a written
waiver of the right to disclaim, shall be binding upon the disclaimant
or beneficiary so waiving and all parties thereafter claiming by, through
or under him, except that a beneficiary so waiving may thereafter transfer,
assign or release his interest if such is not prohibited by an express
or implied spendthrift provision. If an interest in real estate is disclaimed
and the disclaimer is duly filed in accordance with the provisions of Section
4 of this act, the spouse of the disclaimant, if such spouse has consented
to the disclaimer in writing, shall thereupon be automatically debarred
from any claim, right or interest in such real estate to which such spouse,
except for such disclaimer, would have been entitled.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §757.
Other Rights Not Abridged.
This act shall not abridge the right of any
person, apart from this act, under any existing or future statute or rule
of law, to disclaim any interest or to assign, convey, release, renounce
or otherwise dispose of any interest.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §758.
Interests Not Fixed or Finally Ascertained - Right to Disclaim.
Any interest which exists on the effective date
of this act but which has not then become indefeasibly fixed both in quality
and quantity, or the taker of which has not then become finally ascertained,
may be thereafter disclaimed in the manner provided herein.
Title 60, Chap. 15, §759.
